Belmont’s post office opened in 1854, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns · #241 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Belmont was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1966. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1896 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Belmont post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1926.
History grade
What drives Belmont’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Belmont is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #241 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Belmont’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Belmont’s 0.7 sits above most of its state (73% of California towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B−. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1926.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Belmont’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The story so far
Belmont, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Belmont yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Belmont is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the San Francisco Peninsula about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose, on the northern edge of California’s Silicon Valley. It was originally part of Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas, is named. The city was incorporated in 1926. Its population was 28,335 at the 2020 census. Ralston Hall is a historic landmark built by Bank of California founder William Chapman Ralston on the campus of Notre Dame de Namur University, and is also home to Notre Dame High School. It was built around a villa formerly owned by Count Leonetto Cipriani, an …
Its first post office opened in 1854. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 25,835 to 28,335 (+10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Belmont in 1883
Passages that mention Belmont, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of San Mateo County, California, including its geography, topography, geology, climatography, and description, together with an historical sketch of California1883 · page 230Read the page →
Read the text
The initial step in the settlement of Belmont, was the building of a hotel by a Mr. Angelo, on what is now known as the Robinson property. This was in the year 1850. A short time prior to that, Angelo had entertained travelers in a canvass tent, a little distance below Redwood City. His hotel in Belmont, in those early days, became widely known, especially by the sporting fraternity, whose wants were carefully catered to by the proprietor. A Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Belmont, 1854 to 1994
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Belmont post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1926.
How does Belmont rank for history?
Belmont is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #241 of 847 in California. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Belmont?
One place: the William C. Ralston House (listed 1966).
How old are the homes in Belmont?
4% of Belmont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1966.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
★ Landmark
Date?
2017
